Chapter 864: What? The Great Qing Is Gone! (Six)

Why are there so few? Looks like less than twenty thousand men.

And so few cannons too — only a mere twenty-some!

It seems there's hardly any cavalry either; it's all infantry squares...

Could victory really be at hand?

Has this good fortune come too quickly?

When they saw the thirty-two Ming infantry squares slowly deploying on open ground about three li from their own front line, also forming into two great horizontal ranks, the hearts of the Qing officers and men were practically blooming with joy.

They had originally thought the Ming army outnumbered them; they never expected so few men. Now this was excellent — at last they could win a complete victory!

Dodo stood on a hastily erected observation platform, holding a telescope and peering toward the rear of the Ming formation. But he could not see very clearly, because the sun was just then gradually rising, and the Ming army had the sun at their backs while the Qing army faced directly into it. So it was hard to make out whether there was dust raised by a large army advancing behind the Ming lines.

Still, Dodo would not believe the Ming army numbered only this many. He turned and descended from the platform. Nikan and Yue Le were waiting below it.

Seeing Dodo come down, Nikan loudly offered his advice: "Imperial Uncle, the southern barbarians must have a rear formation. Right now it probably hasn't all arrived — this is our chance. Better to strike them first and teach the southern barbarians a lesson!"

Dodo glanced at Yue Le. Yue Le said, "Imperial Uncle, the southern army is skilled at building field fortifications. We cannot give the southern army time to build them, or they will be hard to fight!"

Dodo frowned. "Yue Le, do you think the southern army might be using the thirty-two infantry squares before us to screen a rear force that is building fortifications?"

"Very likely!" Yue Le said. "Our army benefits from a quick battle; the southern army benefits from a drawn-out one... If we let them finish their fortifications, our army will be caught between advancing and retreating."

Dodo nodded. A fortified standoff was a terrible thing for him! Because half his army was infantry — not the sort that could simply march away at will.

Moreover, most of his troops were "rotational soldiers" who were both soldiers and farmers. They had already been in the field for several months now, and this year's spring planting had most likely been missed. If they dragged on a few more months, there would not even be a chance to replant, and by autumn there would be a severe crop failure.

What if the two sides faced off until autumn and still could not decide a victor? Drag on until next year?

By then it would not just be a poor harvest in the rear — even feeding the seventy or eighty thousand troops at the front would become a problem...

"Yue Le, I leave it to you!" Dodo knew Yue Le was cautious, steady, and had the bearing of a great general, so he gave him the vanguard. "All seventy-two niru of infantry are yours... Fight well! Let the southern barbarians know the might of our Great Qing celestial soldiers!"

"Je!"

Yue Le performed a dacanli salute, received Dodo's order, and headed for the front line. Before he even arrived, the rumble of cannon fire sounded up ahead.

These were the thirty-two 3-pounder guns of the two artillery battalions under Gao Jie, Military Governor of the Xu-Hai Army of the Ming, opening fire!

Though the Ming cannons were fewer in number, they were deployed in a very concentrated manner, so in localized areas they held the advantage in firepower!

In fact, Gao Jie's two great infantry lines were also drawn up rather densely. The roughly 240 pikemen of each battalion formed four ranks, and the distance between the two lines was fairly close — less than twenty paces. The roughly 240 musketeers of each battalion were drawn up in three ranks in front of the pike lines, with only half a pace between each musketeer. Moreover, the first two ranks of musketeers were staggered, so that the first two ranks could fire simultaneously. The third rank of musketeers served as replacements, used to fill losses in the front ranks and maintain the formation... Clearly, Gao Jie's intention was to maximize firepower and inflict the greatest possible casualties on the enemy with bullets.

In front of the musketeers, spread out in a single line and firing rapidly, were the thirty-two 3-pounder battalion guns!

Their target was the Qing artillery position more than two li away, and what they fired were expensive lead shot. In this era, cannonballs came in four varieties: lead, stone, iron, and grapeshot. Among them, lead shot, being relatively soft and easier to ram into a bronze bore, could be made somewhat larger, leaving less windage between ball and barrel, which gave a better gas seal — so it flew farther and truer.

Moreover, after years of rigorous training, the Ming gunners' skill had improved markedly: they fired quickly and aimed accurately. Without needing volley fire or unified spotting, they could drop round after round of lead shot onto the Qing artillery position.

The Qing gun emplacement was instantly a chaos of dust and smoke, men thrown about and cannons overturned.

By the time Yue Le risked advancing on foot to the forward edge, the Qing artillery had begun to return fire. Because Ming shells kept falling, the Qing gun position was in complete disorder. Cannons were constantly being knocked over, gunners killed or wounded, screams and shouts of alarm rising one after another.

Under these conditions, the Qing gunners, whose level of training was none too high, fired in great confusion — neither fast nor accurate. Though they had three times as many cannons as the enemy, they failed to bring their proper power to bear. After hammering away for a good while, they seemed not to have silenced more than a few Ming guns, while on their own side five or six cannons had already been knocked over.

Still, those Qing cannons were not entirely useless — they did produce a great deal of smoke. Because there was no wind on the battlefield that day, the gunsmoke could not disperse, and the center of the field was soon thick with smoke, visibility dropping sharply.

"Sound the horns, beat the drums!" This was the moment Yue Le had been waiting for, so he gave the order without hesitation.

On the thirteenth day of the second month, just at the hour of noon, forty niru of Qing infantry began advancing in formation to the rolling beat of war drums.

Because muskets were in short supply, Dodo's infantry could not adopt European-style square tactics. Instead they used a mixed formation of muskets, pikes, sword-and-buckler men, and archers. Musketeers made up about one-eighth of each niru — thirty-some, not quite forty men. At the start of an engagement, they were drawn up before the formation, generally in one or two ranks, and firing five or six volleys was considered enough — they could not fire more, because the barrels of their matchlocks needed time to cool.

Behind the musketeers were the archers, roughly equal in number to the musketeers. After the musketeers finished their volleys they would withdraw, and then the archers would come forward to shoot. There was no chance to shoot much either — generally ten or twenty arrows and then off to rest.

Once the musketeers and archers were done, it was the pikemen's and sword-and-buckler men's turn...

When the Qing infantry advanced, their cannons ceased firing — because in front of the cannons were their own infantry!

The Ming gunners opposite, though they could not see clearly what lay ahead, heard all the Qing cannons fall silent and knew the Qing infantry was about to come up.

So they too ceased fire and began loading grapeshot and moving the ammunition carts.

Grapeshot was good for only two or three rounds, and the grapeshot of a 3-pounder had little power anyway — nowhere near enough to stop a full forty niru of Qing troops. So after firing the grapeshot, the gunners had to hurry their draft horses and haul the cannons away.

When they saw the artillery ammunition carts pull back first, the Ming musketeers behind grew tense. Company-grade officers blew their "prepare for battle" whistles one after another, while squad leaders and platoon leaders at the basic level began issuing orders.

"Light your matches! Load your pieces..."

After a flurry of activity, the front of the Ming position suddenly became extraordinarily quiet — no clamor of voices, no rumble of cannon. Only the dense, countless booming sound of marching feet...

Everyone held their breath and stared fixedly ahead. Much of the gunsmoke had cleared, and great columns of "white-coated Qing troops" had already appeared in everyone's line of sight.

"Boom-boom-boom..."

The 3-pounder battalion guns arrayed before the infantry roared to life once more! This time they spat grapeshot — twenty or thirty musket balls wrapped in deerskin and rammed hard into the bore, now driven out in a burst of deflagrating powder, scattering violently at the muzzle and flying forward to sweep across the bodies of the Qing musketeers more than a hundred paces away. Their white cotton armor was instantly dyed blood-red, and the soldiers who were hit toppled backward to the ground before they could even cry out, and lay still.

But the Qing soldiers who had not been hit kept advancing with heads down!